Banks have reduced the volume of new naira notes they dispense to customers per cash withdrawal by about 50 percent leading to increased anxiety over the January 31st deadline when the old notes will cease to be legal tender.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, in a bid to protect Nigerians from falling victims of counterfeiters, has released details and positions of the security features in the new N200, N500 and N1000 notes.
Vanguard investigations revealed that some banks now give their customers N4,000 in the redesigned N1,000 note for cash withdrawal of N100,000, while some give N5,000 in redesigned note per N200,000 cash withdrawal.
READ ALSO: Major Reasons Why We Redesigned Naira Notes -CBN
This is a sharp reduction from the N10,000 in redesigned notes given to customers per N100,000 last week when the banks commenced circulation of the new notes.
Lamenting the limited supply of the new notes, a bank customer at the Access Bank branch, Ikotun Lagos, Mrs. Sarah Okoyomo, told Vanguard, “I just withdrew N50,000 over the counter and was paid N48,000 old notes and N2,000 new notes. How can these new notes circulate with such little disbursement?”
READ ALSO: Fake New Naira Notes Circulate In Cities, Events, And Parties
The situation was also the same at the Igando branch of First Bank, where Oluwashina Olabode, a Point-of-Sale (PoS) operator, told Vanguard that the rationing of the redesigned naira notes has worsened due to scarcity adding that his customers also complained paying them in old notes instead of newly redesigned notes.
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